TO HELP THE FAMILY OF DAMIAN MEINS

Damian Lawrence Meins was described as a modest and private man who would be “overwhelmed and embarrassed” by the attention he’s received since his death, said his wife, Trenna Meins, in a eulogy delivered Friday, Dec. 11.

For the family, however, Meins said the outpouring of support from the community for her husband, whom she called a “selfless man,” has “warmed our hearts.”

Meins delivered the remarks to a standing-room-only crowd of about 600 people who attended the service at St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in Riverside. It was presided over by Bishop Gerald Richard Barnes, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino. Father Art Mateo delivered the homily.

Damian Meins, 58, grew up in Jurupa and Rubidoux and lived in Riverside for nearly 40 years. He was one of the 14 people killed on Wednesday, Dec. 2 in the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.

“Damian’s death and those of 13 other people was not God’s will,” Mateo said during the 80-minute funeral Mass. “My greatest consolation is that his death will not end in tears. God will triumph over evil and wipe away our tears.”

The church is across the street from Trenna and Damian’s alma mater, Notre Dame High School, where they met as teens and fell in love. On May 5, 1979, they were married in St. Catherine’s. A year ago, Damian Meins taught art at the church elementary school where he painted an outside mural.

After working for Riverside County for 26 years, mostly in the Department of Environmental Health, he retired in 2010. He went back to work in September, joining San Bernardino County’s Environmental Health Services Department as an inspector.

Gary Root of Upland, who hired Meins in 1984, described him “as a man of integrity, talent and wisdom.”

“And he was fun to work with,” Root said. “He made my job so much more enjoyable.”

Meins and co-worker Steve Van Stockum, – best friends since age 9 – used to jazz up the office wearing their “all-occasion ties,” for every holiday, even St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween, Root said.

Trenna Meins and the couple’s two daughters, 33-year-old Tina Meins and 29-year-old Tawnya Meins, spoke near the end of the service.

Trenna Meins said her husband was the type who would kiss the top of her head, make her favorite breakfast or surprise her on the spur of the moment with a slice of watermelon.

“You just can’t tell people you love them,” he used to tell Trenna.

His daughters reminisced about the family’s recent trip to Cambodia. On the memorial program there’s a picture of them and their dad at the largest religious monument in the world, the Angkor Wat temple complex in Siem Reap Province.

They talked about how he “loved freely and thought life was a beautiful adventure,” which he lived to the fullest by reading, learning, traveling the world, painting, working on cars and sipping port while dreaming by his fish pond. His daughters referred to their dad as a peacemaker, a giver who put others first, and a calm, rational man slow to anger.

The family expressed no anger or bitterness during their short eulogies. They asked mourners to continue “performing small acts of kindness, as Damian always did.”

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